≡ Awarded the reIMAGINE Sculpture Project Prize
The reIMAGINE Sculpture Project called for artists, via an EOI application process, to make works from items destined for landfill. After discussing with the recycling centre staff the issues that the Recycling Centre faces, I chose to work with discarded chairs… it seems chairs and furniture in general, contribute a large proportion of hard waste — they often only need a small repair.
The exhibition coincided with the 2019 World Environment Day festival run by the Shoalhaven City Council.
Statement:
Post tensioning is an engineering technique that uses cables threaded through a structure to keep it stable.
The steps involved in the life of a product: designing-making-transporting-desiring-buying-energy consumption are like beads on a cable, post-tensioned by its perceived value and ongoing usage. When we choose to discard a product the line of tension breaks, each bead falling into irrelevance.
This ‘monument’ is a reminder that our choices keep the post-tensioning in place …or not.
It is also a reminder to consider carefully what systems we thread our tension through (what systems do we post tension?). Question everything! Are you holding together only that which serves our future?